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Efforts continue to relaunch Sombra ferry

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help with the cost of repairs needed to the causeway to the Bluewater Ferry's dock in Sombra. It was damaged by ice in early January and the cost of repairs has been estimated at approximately $2.5 million.
File photo/Postmedia Network

The federal budget may have offered a glimmer of hope for efforts to keep the Bluewater Ferry afloat on the St. Clair River.

The crossing connecting Sombra and Marine City, Mich., had been closed since early January when the causeway on the Ontario side was damaged by ice.

Since then, Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu has been knocking on doors in Ottawa to seek federal funding to help with what are expected to be expensive repairs.

The budget announced this week may include a potential source of help, Gladu said.

“There was a tiny little small craft fund for $250 million that we would look at seeing whether could apply for some ferry money,” she said.

That comes after initial efforts to seek out federal funding appeared to have run aground.

“I’ve been turned down by five cabinet ministers and the prime minister’s office,” Gladu said.

“They ought to be able to find $2.5 million to restore a border crossing.”

An online fundraising effort that Sarnia’s Helen Cole launched in February to assist the family-owned Ferry business has expanded.

She began with a fundraising campaign on the GoFundMe website, www.gofundme.com/savebluewaterferry, that has collected more than $8,000, so far.

Other volunteers have since joined the effort and are approaching area businesses for donations.

“We’re working hard on it, and my volunteers tell me they’re getting a good response from the community,” Cole said.

They’ve also set up a “Save Bluewater Ferry” account accepting donations at all branches of the Mainstreet Credit Union.

All funds raised will help with the cost of repairs needed so that the ferry that has been in the Dalgety family since the late 1940s can continue to operate.

“It shows the family that the support is there for what is a very important international border crossing,” Cole said.

Morgan Dalgety said they have working to find a way to replace the damaged causeway and return the ferry to operation.

Dalgety said, “I’ve mortgaged the farm, mortgaged the house” and raised enough funds to buy a prefabricated modular metal bridge, but added he has been struggling to get permits and engineering in place.”

The bridge model he hopes to use will require construction of a centre support pier, and the family also faces the cost of having the damaged causeway removed.

The estimate of $2.5 million for repairs to keep the ferry running remains accurate, Dalgety said.

Buying the prefabricated bridge is $818,000, plus taxes, but there will also be the cost of installation, as well as dismantling the causeway, he said.

“I was hoping the government was going to come to the plate because they’re throwing money everywhere but to Southern Ontario,” he said.

Dalgety estimated the federal government collects $3.3 million annually in duties and taxes at the crossing used annually by nearly 115,000 cars, plus trucks, and 43,000 pedestrians.

“This is a fifth-generation, 70-year-old family-run business and I’m not going to give up on it,’ Dalgety said.

“As long as I don’t go bankrupt, we’re going to go to every avenue we can to get this running.”

Loss of the ferry crossing would have a serious economic impact on the area, according to the fundraisers.

“It is a service that we need to continue, and that’s why I think the ferry owners need some help,” Cole said.